Device for packaging two products to be mixed and for dispensing the mixture of these products

ABSTRACT

Device including a bottle having two open ends and a central body receiving a first product, one end of the bottle has an orifice receiving a stopper which contains a second product to be mixed with the first, another end of the bottle has an orifice receiving a removable cap provided for withdrawing the mixture after removal of the cap.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present invention generally concerns a device for packaging twoproducts to be mixed, at least one thereof being a liquid product, andfor dispensing the mixture of these products. One particular, butnon-limiting exemplary application of the subject of this invention is acombined device intended for the extemporaneous preparing of medicinalproducts in the liquid state, and for the secure withdrawing of theprepared liquid preparation from the device. The problem underlying theinvention is set forth below with reference to this particularapplication.

BACKGROUND

The oral dosing of medicinal products in tablet form, in the solidstate, is often difficult for children and the elderly notably forreasons of palatability, the size of the tablets often being too large.In addition the doses to be prescribed are not uniform and currenttablets do not allow personalized dose adaptation.

Therefore, liquid forms of medicinal products can improve thepalatability and personalization of doses in relation to patient age andweight in particular. However, from an industrial viewpoint, liquidforms are fairly complicated to prepare, chiefly having regard to thestability of the active ingredient in the liquid.

These difficulties warrant the interest in so-called extemporaneousliquid preparations. These consist of a mixture of two components e.g.the mixture of a powder with a liquid or the mixture of a liquid withanother liquid, to prepare a reconstituted liquid product which may be asuspension or a solution, said medicinal product possibly being takenwithin a period of greater or shorter length after its reconstitution.The present invention lies in the field of the extemporaneouspreparation of said liquid medicinal products.

Various propositions have already been put forward to form theseextemporaneous preparations. As examples, mention may be made of Frenchpatents N^(o)s 1233412, 1486502, 1508658, 2190094, 2238644, 2427960 and2628075.

In these patents, the mixture is prepared through voluntary action onthe part of the user, and the disadvantages of conventionalextemporaneous preparations are not eliminated: risk of contaminationfor sterile products, risk of loss of part of the components, risk ofusing only a single component and, in general, difficulty in applying orusing the method to be followed to obtain proper mixing.

Packaging and dispensing assemblies have also been proposed which allowthe extemporaneous mixing of components using a screw-on and screw-offmovement. In general the principle of these devices is based on thepresence of a film closing a first bottle, a film that is pushed backwhen this bottle is screwed onto the opening of another bottle, therebysetting up communication between the two bottles and allowing the mixingof their respective contents. Depending on cases, the film isfree-standing or joined to the first bottle via a hinge. As examples ofsaid assemblies mention may be made of French patents N^(o)s 2478607 and2506726.

This latter form of embodiment remains fairly difficult to manipulateand comprises risks of product leakage when placing one bottle over theother and at the time of dispensing the prepared mixture. In addition,the applications thereof are limited to the mixing together of liquidproducts.

BRIEF SUMMARY

The present invention sets out to remedy all the shortcomings set forthabove. The invention therefore is intended to provide a device for theextemporaneous preparing of medicinal products or food supplements orsimilar, in the form of a packaging assembly which best meets thefollowing requirements:

-   -   Simplifying the handling needed to carry out suitable mixing of        the components, without skin, oral or respiratory contact;    -   When applicable, secure dosing of the prepared mixture        eliminating risks related to leakage and dosage precision;    -   Compatibility with all extemporaneous preparations: mixing a        liquid with another liquid, of aqueous or oil or gel type, or of        a liquid with a solid which itself may be in any form (powder,        granules, tablets, nanoparticles . . . );

whilst remaining of simple, economic design, allowing easy industrialmanufacture and integration thereof in a logistics line.

For this purpose, the subject-matter of the invention is a device forthe packaging of two products to be mixed, at least one thereof being aliquid product, and for dispensing the mixture of these products, thedevice essentially being characterized by the fact that it comprises abottle having two open ends, the bottle comprising a central bodyreceiving a first product, one end with an orifice receiving a stopperwhich contains a second product to be mixed with the first, and anotherend opposite the first receiving a removable cap designed for withdrawalof the mixture after removal of the cap.

The device of the invention is therefore in the form of a small bottlewith two orifices of which one receives a stopper designed to containthe liquid or solid product to be mixed with the liquid productcontained in the body of the bottle, or conversely, whilst the otherorifice is provided for the dispensing of the mixture obtained insidethe bottle. The device is therefore a single bottle and can be used asfollows: the stopper located at one end of the bottle is first actuatedso as to release the product contained therein and thereby allow themixing of this product with the other product contained in the body ofthe bottle; the bottle is then upturned and the cap located at its otherend is removed to withdraw a suitable quantity of medicinal or otherreconstituted product.

In one preferred embodiment of the device of the invention, the stopperprovided at the first end of the bottle is provided with a centralcavity engaged in the opening of this end and initially containing thesecond product, said stopper carrying a part that can be moved axiallyand which, when pressed down, is capable of opening the bottom of thecavity to release the second product. Advantageously, the stopper isequipped with a tamperproof tab whose presence holds said part away fromthe bottom of the cavity and whose removal allows this part to be pusheddown with a view to opening the bottom of the cavity to release thesecond product. This stopper can be a screw-on stopper or a stopperpress-fitted onto the bottle.

Regarding the other end of the bottle which receives the cap, this endmay also carry or itself form a section reducer with a central orificehaving a diameter corresponding to the diameter of a dosing syringewhich can be used to withdraw the mixture in secure, sterile manner withno risk of leakage.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

In all cases, the invention will be better understood in the light ofthe following description with reference to the appended schematicdrawings which illustrate an exemplary embodiment of the device forpackaging two products to be mixed and for dispensing the mixture ofthese products.

FIG. 1 is an outer, overall view of a device conforming to the presentinvention showing a dosing syringe which can be used with this device.

FIG. 2 is a longitudinal section view of the device in FIG. 1.

FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view, on magnified scale, of the end of thisdevice comprising the stopper.

FIGS. 4 to 8 are schematic illustrations of the device in the precedingfigures.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The device shown in the drawing and globally denoted 1 chiefly comprisesa bottle 2 open at its two ends, a stopper 3 placed at one end of thebottle 2, and a cap 4 mounted on the other end of this bottle 2.

The bottle 2 has a central body 5, preferably made in a transparentmaterial. At one end, the bottle 2 has a first circular opening 6. Thisend can be provided with a thread 7 (if the stopper 3 is a screw-onstopper). At its other end, also open, the bottle 2 can be provided withan outer thread 8 (if the cap is a screw-on cap).

With more particular reference to FIGS. 2 and 3, the stopper 3 has anouter skirt 9 provided with an inner thread cooperating with the outerthread 7 of the bottle 2. The stopper 3 also has a central part 10 inthe form of a jar which is engaged in the circular opening 6 of thebottle and which delimits a cavity 11.

A part 12 of general cylindrical appearance caps the stopper 3 and alsoengages, via its projecting central part 13, into the cavity 11delimited by the central part 10 of said stopper 3. A ring-shaped seal14 is inserted between the top of the stopper 3 and the central part 13of part 12.

A tamperproof tab 15 is provided at the base of part 12, around thelower region of the outer skirt 9 of the stopper 3. The initial presenceof the tamperproof tab 15 holds the central part 13 of part 12 distantfrom the bottom 16 of the cavity 11.

This cavity 11 is provided to receive one of the two products (liquid orsolid) to be mixed, whilst the central body 5 of the bottle 2 isprovided to receive the other product (liquid or solid). As will beunderstood, the two products remain well separated from one another foras long as the bottom 16 of the cavity 11 remains in place.

At its other end, in the illustrated example, the bottle 2 receives asection reducer 17, added and welded, that delimits a central orifice 18of circular shape. The diameter of the central orifice 18 corresponds tothe diameter of a dosing syringe 19, known per se. The cap 4 initiallycaps the reducer 17 on which it is mounted (thread 8).

At the time of use, the tamperproof tab 15 is torn off (FIG. 4) and part12 which is released axially over a certain distance is pressed down(FIG. 5) so as to open the bottom 16 of the cavity 11. The productinitially contained in this cavity 11 then falls into the central body 5of the bottle 2 where it mixes with the product already contained insaid central body 5. The mixture of the two products is made homogeneousby shaking the device.

The device is then upturned and the cap 4 is removed, as shown FIG. 6.The dosing syringe 19 is next inserted in the orifice 18 and used towithdraw a determined quantity of the formed extemporaneous preparation(FIG. 7). After dosing, the syringe 19 is withdrawn (FIG. 8) and used toadminister the medicinal product. Finally, the cap 4 is put back inplace, at least if the device is not empty.

The device described above is particularly well suited forextemporaneous preparations of liquid medicinal products made from twoliquid products or from a solid and a liquid, the term <<liquid>>designating aqueous products as well as oil products or gels. These maybe preparations for oral or intravenous use. This device can also beused to prepare food supplements, or for any other similar preparationswhich require the separate storage of two products of which at least oneis liquid, followed by the mixing of these products and dispensing ofthe formed mixture with or without precise dosing. Therefore the usecomprising a dosing syringe and a section reducer adapted for saidsyringe is in no way compulsory, and it can just as well be envisagedthat the second end of the bottle does not contain a section reducer andreceives a teat or is directly brought to the mouth for drinking orswallowing the content, any form of withdrawal of this content possiblybeing envisaged.

The invention, as follows from the foregoing, is evidently not limitedto the sole embodiment of this device for packaging two products to bemixed and for dispensing the mixture of these products, as describedabove by way of example; on the contrary it encompasses all variants ofembodiment and application which follow the same principle. Therefore,it would notably lie within the scope of the invention if modificationswere made to details of shapes and to the assemblies of the componentsof the device, for example by modifying the volume of the bottle, byreplacing the screw-on cap by a press-fit cap or by arrangements such asadding or eliminating seals between these components or through the useof accessories or additional accessories intended to facilitate the useof the device; it can therefore be envisaged for example to adapt ontothe stopper or the bottle itself an <<intelligent label>> which forms atype of visual alarm allowing measurement of the time elapsed since thecontacting of the two liquids or of the liquid with the solid.

1. Device for packaging two products to be mixed, at least one thereofbeing a liquid product, and for dispensing the mixture of theseproducts, comprising: a bottle having two open ends, the bottlecomprising a central body receiving a first product, one end with anorifice receiving a stopper which contains a second product to be mixedwith the first, and another end opposite the first with an orificereceiving a removable cap and provided for withdrawing the mixture afterremoval of the cap.
 2. Device according to claim 1, wherein the stopperprovided at the first end of the bottle is provided with a centralcavity engaged in the opening of this end and initially containing thesecond product, said stopper carrying a part which can be moved axiallyand capable, when pressed down, of opening the bottom of the cavity torelease the second product.
 3. The device according to claim 2,characterized in wherein the stopper is equipped with a tamperproof tabwhose presence holds said part distant from the bottom of the cavity,and whose removal allows this part to be pressed down with a view toopening the bottom of the cavity to release the second product.
 4. Thedevice according to claim 1, wherein the other end of the bottle,receiving the cap also carries, or itself forms, a section reducer witha central orifice having a diameter corresponding to the diameter of adosing syringe which can be used to withdraw the mixture.
 5. The deviceaccording to 4 claim 1, further configured for an extemporaneouspreparation of liquid medicinal products, or for preparation of foodsupplements.